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Love Actually
Love Actually is a 2003 British Christmas-themed romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. The screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress. Set primarily in London, the story begins five weeks before Christmas and is played out in a weekly countdown until the holiday, followed by an epilogue that takes place one month later. Plot The film begins with a voiceover from David (Hugh Grant) commenting that whenever he gets gloomy with the state of the world he thinks about the arrivals terminal at Heathrow Airport, and the pure uncomplicated love felt as friends and families welcome their arriving loved ones. David's voiceover also relates that all the messages left by the people who died on the 9/11 planes were messages of love and not hate. The film then tells the 'love stories' of many people: Billy Mack and Joe With the help of his longtime manager Joe (Gregor Fisher), aging rock and roll legend Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) records a Christmas variation of The Troggs' classic hit "Love Is All Around". Although he thinks the record is terrible, Mack promotes the release in the hope it will become the Christmas number one single. The song does go to number one; after briefly celebrating his victory at a party hosted by Sir Elton John, Billy recognises that Joe needs affection and suggests that he and Joe celebrate Christmas by getting drunk and watching porn. Juliet, Peter and Mark Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are wed in a lovely ceremony orchestrated and videotaped by Mark (Andrew Lincoln), Peter's best friend and best man. One day Juliet arrives unexpectedly at Mark's apartment and watches his video, discovering that the footage is entirely of her. This confuses Juliet, who thought Mark didn't like her: He never talked to her, avoided her, and was generally distant and uncomfortable around her. He blurts out that he acts that way for 'self-preservation', and she finally realises that he's always been head over heels for her, but has kept it to himself out of respect for her and Peter's relationship. At Christmas Mark takes a moment to truly confess his unrequited love for Juliet, silently displaying large white cue cards for her to read. Juliet acknowledges his confession by giving him a kiss. Afterwards, Mark decides to set aside his infatuation and move on. Jamie and Aurélia Writer Jamie (Colin Firth) prepares to attend the wedding of Juliet and Peter while his girlfriend (Sienna Guillory) misses the ceremony to have sex with his brother. Crushed by this, Jamie withdraws to his French cottage where he meets Portuguese housekeeper Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz) who speaks only her native tongue. Despite their inability to communicate, they have similar personalities and become attached to each other. When Jamie returns to England, he realises he is in love with Aurélia and begins learning Portuguese. He returns to Franceto find her, and proposes to her in imperfect Portuguese. She responds, "Yes," as she has been learning English. Harry, Karen and Mia Harry (Alan Rickman) is the managing director of a design agency; Mia (Heike Makatsch) is his new secretary. Harry is comfortably married to his wife, Karen (Emma Thompson), who stays home to raise their children. When Mia becomes more aggressive in expressing her romantic interest in him, Harry becomes intrigued. For Christmas he buys her an expensive necklace from jewellery salesman Rufus (Rowan Atkinson), who elaborately wraps it while Harry nervously anticipates discovery by Karen. Karen discovers the necklace in Harry's coat pocket and assumes it is a gift for her; when he gives her a music CD instead, she intuits that the more glamorous gift was for Mia, and confronts Harry. He admits his foolishness, but she confides that his actions have made a mockery of their marriage. David and Natalie Karen's brother, David (Hugh Grant), is the recently elected Prime Minister. Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) is a new junior member of the household staff at 10 Downing Street and serves his tea and biscuits. Something seems to click between them. David walks in to find the U.S. President (Billy Bob Thornton) sexually harassing Natalie, which inspires him to take a stand against the bullying President's policies. Finding that his relationship with Natalie has become strained, David has her moved to another job, but later comes across a Christmas card from Natalie ending with a declaration of her love for him. After a door to door search of her street, Mia tells him Natalie lives next door, he discovers she is going with family to the local school for the nativity play (the same one in which his niece and nephew are appearing). He drives her family to the play, and the two watch the show from backstage, their budding relationship exposed when a curtain is raised on them kissing at the end of the pageant's big finale. Daniel, Sam, Joanna and Carol Daniel (Liam Neeson), Karen's friend, and his stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) fend for themselves as they mourn the loss of their wife and mother, Joanna. Sam has fallen for American classmate, also named Joanna (Olivia Olson), and, after discussion with his stepfather, decides to learn the drums so that he can accompany her in the big finale for their school's Christmas pageant (the same one that Natalie's nephew and Karen and Harry's children are in). After Sam feels that he missed his chance to make an impression on her, Daniel convinces Sam that he must go catch Joanna, who is returning to the US, at the airport that night and show her how he feels, lest he regret it for his whole life. Sam runs away from the airport security and says hi to Joanna, who then kisses him on the cheek. Meanwhile, Daniel, who previously mentioned admiring supermodel Claudia Schiffer, meets Carol, played by Schiffer, the parent of another of Sam's school mates. Sarah, Karl and Michael Sarah (Laura Linney) first appears at Juliet and Peter's wedding, sitting next to her friend Jamie. She works at Harry's graphic design company and has been in love for years with the company's creative director, Karl (Rodrigo Santoro). A tryst between Karl and Sarah is interrupted by phone calls from her brother, Michael, from the mental care facility where he lives. This effectively ends their relationship. On Christmas Eve, she visits her brother at the institution, wrapping a scarf around him as he hugs her. Colin, Tony and the American girls After several blunders attempting to woo various English women, including Mia and Nancy (Julia Davis), the caterer at Juliet and Peter's wedding, Colin Frissell (Kris Marshall) informs his friend Tony (Abdul Salis) he plans to go to America and find love there, convinced that his Britishness will be an asset to him in a foreign country. Landing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Colin meets Stacey (Ivana Miličević), Jeannie (January Jones), and Carol-Anne (Elisha Cuthbert), three stunningly attractive women who fall for his Basildon accent and invite him to stay at their home, where they are joined by roommate Harriet (Shannon Elizabeth). John and Judy John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page) are professional body doubles for films. They meet for the sex scenes in a film for which Tony is a production assistant. John tells Judy that "It is nice to have someone he can just chat to." While the two are perfectly comfortable being naked and simulating sex on-set, they are shy and tentative off-set. Carefully pursuing a relationship, they attend the Christmas pageant (involving David and Natalie, Harry and Karen's children, Daniel and Sam, et al.) at the local school with John's brother. Rufus Rufus, played by Rowan Atkinson, is the jewellery salesman whose obsessive attention to gift-wrapping nearly gets Harry caught by Karen buying Mia's necklace. Also, it is his distraction of staff at the airport which allows Sam to sneak through to see Joanna. In the director and cast commentary, it is revealed that Rufus was originally supposed to be a Christmas angel; however, this was dropped from the final script. Epilogue The epilogue is set one month later; the relationships of the characters have continued to evolve. Billy arrives with a gorgeous groupie in tow, and confirms to Joe that his hit song has launched his successful comeback. Juliet, Peter, and Mark arrive together to meet Jamie and his new bride Aurélia. Karen and the kids greet Harry, but Karen's reaction suggests that they are struggling to move past his indiscretion. Sam greets Joanna, who has returned with her mother from America, and Daniel is joined by his new girlfriend Carol and her son. Newlyweds John and Judy, heading off to their honeymoon, run into Tony who is awaiting Colin as he returns from the US. Colin returns with the gorgeous Harriet and her sister Carla (Denise Richards) who greets Tony with a hug and a kiss. Natalie aggressively welcomes David back from his flight in view of the press, indicating that their relationship is now public. These scenes dissolve into footage of actual arrivals at Heathrow Airport, as the screen is divided into an increasing number of smaller segments which form the shape of a heart, as The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" plays on. Links Each story is linked in some way except for Billy Mack and his manager, who are not friends with any of the characters, but Billy appears frequently on characters' radios and TVs, his music video twice providing an important plot device for Sam's pursuit of Joanna; the pair also cross paths with the other characters in the closing Heathrow scene. John and Judy work with Tony who is best friends with Colin who works for a catering company that services the office where Sarah, Karl, Mia, and Harry work and also catered Peter and Juliet's wedding. Mia is friends with Mark who runs the art gallery where the Christmas office party takes place. Mia also lives next door to Natalie. Mark is in love with Juliet and friends with Peter. The couple are friends with Jamie and Sarah. Harry is married to Karen who is friends with Daniel, and Karen's brother is David who works with Natalie. Harry and Karen's children (and thus David's niece and nephew), Natalie's siblings (and thus Mia's neighbours), and Carol's son are all schoolmates of Sam and Joanna. An additional plot that was dropped in editing concerned the children's headmistress and her dying lesbian partner. Cast * Alan Rickman as Harry * Emma Thompson as Karen * Hugh Grant as David * Keira Knightley as Juliet * Colin Firth as Jamie * Sienna Guillory as Jamie's Girlfriend * Lúcia Moniz as Aurélia * Liam Neeson as Daniel * Thomas Sangster as Sam * Bill Nighy as Billy Mack * Gregor Fisher as Joe * Martine McCutcheon as Natalie * Chiwetel Ejiofor as Peter * Andrew Lincoln as Mark * Laura Linney as Sarah * Rodrigo Santoro as Karl * Michael Fitzgerald as Michael * Kris Marshall as Colin * Abdul Salis as Tony * Heike Makatsch as Mia * Martin Freeman as John * Joanna Page as Judy (credited as Just Judy) * Olivia Olson as Joanna * Billy Bob Thornton as President of the United States * Rowan Atkinson as Rufus * Claudia Schiffer as Carol * Nina Sosanya as Annie * Ivana Miličević as Stacey * January Jones as Jeannie * Elisha Cuthbert as Carol-Anne * Shannon Elizabeth as Harriet * Denise Richards as Carla * Lulu Popplewell as Daisy * Marcus Brigstocke as Mikey * Julia Davis as Nancy the Caterer * Ruby Turner as Jean (Joanna's mother) External links * Category:2003 release Category:Comedy Films Category:Hugh Grant films Category:Liam Neeson films Category:Emma Thompson films Category:Colin Firth films Category:Laura Linney films Category:Alan Rickman films